Audra Mc Donald

Audra McDonald is unmatched with the variety and breadth of her work as an actor and singer. A record-breaking winner of six Tony Awards two Grammy Awards and one Emmy Award in 2015 she was named as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential individuals. She was also awarded the National Medal of Arts, America's highest honor for achievement in the field--from President Barack Obama. She has a voice of unparalleled beauty and a knack to tell the truth in a dramatic way and truth, her performances in Broadway or the opera are as comfortable as those in films and television. As well as her stage work, she is also a prominent performer as a recording and concert artist who performs regularly at most prestigious venues in the world. McDonald was born to a family with a strong musical background in Fresno, CA. She received classical vocal training at The Juilliard School of New York. A year following her graduation from the Juilliard School, McDonald was awarded the Tony Award for "Best Performance by a Lead Actress in musical" for her performance in Carousel. The following four years she was awarded two more Tony Awards for the category of featured actress. She performed in Broadway premier productions of Terrence McNally's musical Ragtime and Terrence McNally's play Master Class in 1996. That was a staggering number of Tony Awards by the time she was 30. In 2004 she was in the running for her fourth Tony Award. Her role was that of A Raisin in the Sun alongside Sean Diddy Combs. And in 2012, her five-year old daughter took home her first Tony Award in the category of Leading Actress. In that performance, she portrayed the lead role in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess. In 2014, she created Broadway history and became an official Tony Awards most decorated performer when she won the sixth Tony Award in the role of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill the role which was also the platform for her Olivier Award-nominated 2017 debut in the London's West End. Along with setting the record for the most performances that an actor has won in a competition she was also the first individual to win honors in each of the four acting categories. McDonald's other theater credits include The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (1999) Henry IV (2004) 110 in the Shade (2007) Twelfth Night (2009) which marked her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut, the show Shuffle Along or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed (2016) Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (2019) and Ohio State Murders (2023). McDonald was first introduced to television viewers as a dramatic actress by Peabody Award winning CBS's Having Our Say:"The Delany Sisters first 100 years. After her role as a co-star with Kathy Bates, Victor Garber along with other stars in the well-received Disney/ABC remake Annie In 1999 McDonald had a recurring character in NBC's Law & Order Special Victims Unit. McDonald earned her first Emmy due to her character of her role in the HBO adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning play Wit directed by Mike Nichols, starring Emma Thompson. In 2003, she re-appeared on television but this time on Mister Sterling produced by Emmy award-winner Lawrence O'Donnell Jr., featuring Josh Brolin. Then, in the year 2006, McDonald joined WB's The Bedford Diaries. The subsequent year, she was an actor who appeared on NBC's Kidnapped. McDonald won a 4th Emmy for her portrayal of Lady Day in Emerson's Bar and Grill, which aired on HBO in 2016. The Bite is a drama with six seasons based around an epidemic, produced with Spectrum Originals & CBS Studios. McDonald starred alongside Taylor Schilling & Steven Pasquale. McDonald began her role as U.S. lawyer Liz Lawrence (now Liz Reddick), in CBS's law-and-order thriller The Good Wife, in the year 2009. In 2018 she reprised her role on The Good Fight for Paramount+ as a series regular. The performance earned her three Critics Choice Award Nominations. She currently guest-stars in Julian Fellowes's historical thriller The Gilded Age on HBO.